DE PALMA & DONAGGIO INTV'D IN FEB CAHIERSDE PALMA LIKES 'SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK', ACCORDING TO ONE CAHIERS READERThe February 2013 issue of Cahiers du cinema features a section devoted to Brian De Palma's Passion, including separate interviews with De Palma and composer Pino Donaggio, as well as an essay by Stéphane du Mesnildot, titled "De Palma au carré" ("De Palma Squared"). Dimitry Heu-Mojaïsky has his copy of the magazine already, and tweeted today that in this issue, we learn that De Palma liked David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook.

'BLOW OUT' UK STEELBOOK ARTWORKARROW VIDEO BLU-RAY EDITION COMING MAY 27Arrow Video will release a BluRay SteelBook edition of Brian De Palma's Blow Out on May 27th. Below is a list of the special features expected so far:

Special Features: - Limited Edition SteelBook packaging - New, restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Brian De Palma - Original Dolby 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio - Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing - Black and White in Colour: An Interview with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond - Rag Doll Memories: Nancy Allen on Blow Out - Return to Philadelphia: An interview with Producer George Litto - A gallery of on-set photos by photographer Louis Goldman - Original Theatrical Trailer - Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Atkinson, a conversation between Quentin Tarantino and Brian De Palma and more to be confirmed!

As the IFC Center in New York screens Brian De Palma's Carrie tonight and Saturday at midnight (as part of its series, "The Scary '70s"), it seems an appropriate time to delve into some various Carrie notes. The January 2013 issue of American Cinematographer features a cover story interview with Django Unchained lenser Robert Richardson, who tells the magazine's Iain Stasukevich that Carrie was one of several films Tarantino showed his crew in preparation for his latest.

"It has long been Tarantino’s custom," writes Stasukevich, "to screen dozens of movies for his key creatives early in prep to help establish the language of the universe they will create. For Django Unchained, Richardson recalls, these screenings included Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence, Dario Argento’s Suspiria, Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, Max Ophüls’ The Earrings of Madame de …, Brian De Palma’s Carrie, Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More and Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo. 'That’s by no means a complete list,' adds Richardson."

In 2009, Tarantino agreed "vigorously" with one interviewer who suggested that the fiery climax of Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds channeled De Palma's Carrie. It is worth noting that Django Unchained marks the second film in a row in which Tarantino stages a bloody climax amidst the setting of a palatial balcony, such as that in the conclusion of De Palma's Scarface. In his review of Django Unchained, Life Goes Strong's David Weiss suggests that the film keeps Scarface in mind toward the end. "Though one could take a nap in the expository first hour," Weiss states, "the second and third acts are reeling headlong to a brutal barrage of bullets mindful of Brian De Palma's much-satirized ending of Scarface." The critic John Kenneth Muir has noted at some length the way the climax of Inglourious Basterds quotes heavily from the works of De Palma, particularly Carrie and Scarface.

WRIGHT: "A FULL-BLOWN & FULL-BLOODED TEENAGE POP OPERA"Meanwhile, last September, Sight&Sound ran its once-a-decade lists of the greatest films of all time, as chosen by critics (there was much chatter at the time about Vertigo supplanting Citizen Kane on the list as the greatest film of all time). As a side article, the magazine included the top 10 lists of several international directors, including Tarantino and Edgar Wright, who both included Carrie on their lists.

Tarantino characteristically listed 12 films instead of ten, with no other comments. He listed Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad And The Ugly on top (at least, that's how it's listed in the print version), and everything else alphabetically: Apocalypse Now, The Bad News Bears, Carrie, Dazed And Confused, The Great Escape, His Girl Friday, Jaws, Pretty Maids All In A Row, Rolling Thunder, Sorcerer, and Taxi Driver.

Wright listed each of his in alphabetical order, and included brief explanations of each choice. Wright's films were: 2001: A Space Odyssey, An American Werewolf In London, Carrie, Dames, Don't Look Now, Duck Soup, Psycho, Raising Arizona, Taxi Driver, and The Wild Bunch. "In Carrie," Wright commented, "Brian De Palma takes Stephen King's horror of adolescence and turns it into a full-blown and full-blooded teenage pop opera. They didn't need to turn it into a musical-- it already was one."

'PASSION' GETS BELGIUM PREMIERE AT FEB FILM CLUBAND YET ANOTHER POSITIVE FRENCH REVIEW OF DE PALMA'S LATESTThe Genres Next Door monthly film club presents a premiere in Brussels, Belgium, of Brian De Palma's Passion on February 7. According to its website, Genres Next Door's monthly film club projects films that explore different sexualities and minority lifestyles through films that would otherwise see little or no distribution in Belgium. Tweets from Dutch journalists indicate that De Palma has been doing more interviews ahead of the premieres in Belgium and France (Feb. 13). Lindsey of Rachel McAdams Online tells us that Algemeen Dagblad is one of the biggest Dutch journalists. His tweet, according to Lindsey, says that he has finished writing up his interview with De Palma, and that he hopes that Passion will make it to Dutch theaters, which is not the case in all countries. "Unjustified!" he writes. And if you speak Dutch, you can listen to (and understand) an interview with Ghent Film Festival director Patrick Duynslaegher, discussing De Palma, at Radio 1. (Big thanks to Lindsey for steering us in the right direction on that, too!)

"DE PALMA AT THE TOP OF HIS ART"Meanwhile, Avoir-Alire's Kevin Bertrand posted a review of Passion yesterday, stating that "after five years of absence, Brian De Palma returns to top form." Bertrand likes that De Palma added his own twist to the Alain Corneau source material, and feels that making the two protagonists closer in age makes the erotic power plays involved in the story more credible. "Just like his characters," writes Bertrand, "Brian De Palma takes pleasure in manipulating his world, multiplying twists, blurring the boundaries between dream and reality to lose the viewer in a con game to the diabolically black conclusion."